For the second game in a row, reigning National League Most Valuable Player and Los Angeles Dodgers supertar two-way player Shohei Ohtani has gone yard. His home run in Wednesday night's series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies helped Los Angeles avoid a three-game sweep, as the team came away with a 5-0 victory at Dodger Stadium.

Ohtani extended the Dodgers' lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning with a solo home run off Philadelphia starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo. It was a patient battle for Ohtani, as he worked on a 2-2 count before sending Luzardo's 88 mph sweeper that went to the middle of the strike zone out of the park. That home run was also his 51st of the season.

It appeared that Ohtani had a good read of what was coming on that pitch. Luzardo threw a sweepers in all of his first three offerings to Ohtani, who went 2-1 in that stretch.

Luzardo went to his fastball on the fourth pitch to induce a swinging strike from Ohtani before throwing a changeup that was fouled off. Ohtani probably knew Luzardo was going to go back to the sweeper, and he made the hurler pay for it with a deep home run.

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Ohtani's 51 home runs so far in the 2025 MLB season are the third most overall in the big leagues. Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh still leads all players with 56 home runs, while Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies is second with 53 dingers.

However, Ohtani has a superior overall batting line than Raleigh and Schwarber. On the season, he is slashing .282/.394/.614 with a 1.008 OPS.

As for Los Angeles, the win against the Phillies improved its record to 85-67 to create even more separation between them and the 83-77 San Diego Padres for the top spot in the National League West standings.

Ohtani and the Dodgers are down to three series left on their 2025 schedule, with a four-game set against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium coming up. That will be the Dodgers' final homestand before the 2025 MLB postseason, as they will be finishing the regular season with back-to-back road series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Seattle Mariners.